


Yesteryear And Today

by pt_tucker



Series: Memories: Now and Then [2]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zack Lives, Getting Back Together, Light Angst, M/M, Memory Loss, Post-Canon, Post-Dirge of Cerberus, light humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 20:56:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14004597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pt_tucker/pseuds/pt_tucker
Summary: Cloud now knows the truth about their past. It makes things more than a little awkward when Zack walks in only half-dressed.





	Yesteryear And Today

**Author's Note:**

> Same as before: I generally age-up the Crisis Core characters to 18 (Cloud) and 19 (Zack) so when they mention a past relationship, they would have been of age in the real world and not just in the strange FFVII world where apparently 14-year-olds can join the ShinRa army. Also, there would have been a power differential between them due to their ranks at the time, but as this is a decade later, I'm not going to bother going into that.
> 
> I originally started this with the intention of writing a fic about how mako-enhanced individuals don't need as much sleep as others and showing Zack and Cloud hanging out in the middle of the night while everyone else is asleep...and then it just kinda ran away from me and did what it wanted.

Heavy footsteps sounded on the hardwood floor, drawing closer with every passing second. Cloud looked up, about to ask Zack if he wanted to help him with a delivery tomorrow. The words vanished from his mouth, replaced with a garbled “hey” as his eyes shot back down towards the delivery schedule he’d been writing up. He stared at it, not comprehending any of the words, as he studiously avoided the half-naked man in front of him.

“Hey yourself.” Zack slid into the seat across from him, because of course he did. The booth was suddenly far too crowded in the otherwise empty bar.

“Decided to forgo your shirt for the night?” Cloud asked, pretending to scribble something in the margins of his schedule. It looked suspiciously like ‘abs’ if you squinted at it.

“One of the customers got a little rowdy while holding his drink.”

Cloud saw Zack shrug out of the corner of his eye, as if to say ‘what can you do?’ Cloud nodded. While having drunks spill booze on you wasn’t the best of experiences for anyone, it was particularly annoying when you had mako-enhanced senses. The constant smell of alcohol just beneath your nose was enough to drive a man mad.

“You want me to go get a towel or something? Maybe wrap myself up in one of the blankets?”

Cloud’s gaze shot up. Zack was giving him a teasing grin, one that said he was all too aware of the thoughts swirling around Cloud’s head. 

“No,” Cloud snapped, more harshly than he’d intended. He could gauge just how red his face was right then by how wide Zack’s grin grew.

Gaia, he was being ridiculous. He’d _been_ ridiculous for the past three weeks. He’d seen Zack without his shirt on before. Hell, he’d seen Zack butt-ass naked, if he counted when he’d pulled him out of that fucking tank in the labs. Or when he’d, apparently, been sleeping with the guy.

Thoughts of sleeping with Zack had him ducking his head again. They had ever since he’d learned that sleeping with him was not only an option, but was in fact old news, as far as Zack was concerned. As far as Cloud was concerned…

Gaia, he felt like one of those blushing virgins in those trashy romance movies Barret insisted he didn’t watch, but which were somehow always on whenever Cloud wandered past the TV.

He could fuck Zack. Now. If he wanted.

Except he couldn’t, because Zack had been frustratingly slow about it all, only allowing Cloud a few chaste kisses here and there. Apparently he’d been quite serious about the ‘all new memories part, including Cloud’s blue, blue balls. 

It left Cloud aching for more every time they were in each other’s presence - which was always, Zack never far from his side - and had forced him to resort to the old fantasies he’d had before everything had gone to shit. 

Before the object of said fantasies had died. 

All of it did nothing to help how awkward Cloud felt around the man whom he’d been nothing but relaxed around before. And, to top it all off, Cloud was now, at this very moment, losing it over seeing Zack’s stomach.

Fuck him sideways and back.

He jerked when something fluttered in front of his face. It took him a second to realize it was Zack’s hand, and then Cloud was sighing as he rubbed the back of his neck. If Zack found the motion at all familiar, he didn’t say anything. 

“Sorry.”

“Get caught in your memories again?” Zack asked, his tone understanding.

Cloud gave him a wry grin. They both had a terrible habit of it, didn’t they?

“Something like that.”

Zack hummed in a way that said he knew there was more to the story. “So, what are we going to do tonight?”

Cloud sent him a grateful smile. As frustrated as he may be, he wasn’t in the mood to get into this right now. Not unless Zack was planning on taking off the rest of his clothes. 

“I’ve got a few deliveries tomorrow, if you wanna help.”

“Of course I do, Spikey!” Zack reached across the table and ruffled Cloud’s hair. Cloud, begrudgingly, accepted it. “Can’t let you go wandering off without me! Someone might-” Zack faltered, his hand freezing for the briefest of seconds. 

Time seemed to slow as something in his smile broke, and then it sped back up again as Zack finished ruffling his hair, his new, secondary, grin absolutely dazzling as he pushed through whatever dark moment had tried to overtake him. He didn’t finish his sentence.

“We should get you your own bike,” Cloud said, doing him the favor of ignoring everything that had just happened.

“What, you don’t like me riding with you?” Zack pouted.

“It’s difficult to wield my sword when you’re behind me.”

“You just do that to show off.”

…He wasn’t wrong. There’d really been no reason for Cloud to whack that Touchy Bomb as they’d driven past. It hadn’t even been inflating.

“You never know,” Cloud muttered, side-stepping the accusation. Visions of silver-haired triplets filled his head.

Zack leaned back and crossed his arms. “I might have enough for a bike if I strong-arm Rufus into giving me my back pay for all those years I was ‘killed in action.’” He made quotation marks in the air.

“I can buy it for you,” Cloud blurted, and not only because he didn’t want Rufus ShinRa anywhere near Zack, ever. 

Zack tilted his head to the side.

“I have more than enough money. I don’t even have to do this if I don’t want to.” He waved at the delivery schedule. “It was just something to do.” 

And because there was nothing more guilt-inducing than riding around on a machine that could probably survive a Zolom attack while the little old lady up the street had been telling anyone who would listen that she was going to send a care package to her grandchildren once the mail system started back up again. 

“I can get you some new clothes too,” Cloud added, because Zack was sitting there half naked, and it’d only just now occurred to him that he probably should have done that in the first place, rather than allow Tseng to quietly supply Zack a couple of old SOLDIER uniforms when no one was looking. 

He was the worst boyfriend ever. No wonder Zack never said anything about their relationship.

“I should say no, but considering how many times I took you out to lunch, I guess I can consider this payback.” 

“We…went to that SOLDIER-inspired restaurant,” Cloud said slowly, not quite daring to trust the memory. 

“You remember!”

Cloud relaxed. “Yeah. I remember. I remember that you got us kicked out when you told the owner that he’d gotten Commander Hewley’s favorite plant wrong.” The plant which said owner had already spent thousands of gil importing. He’d spread it all over the restaurant, along with plaques that read ‘Only the best for our honorable customers!’ and ‘Grown by Commander Hewley himself!’

“It _was_ the wrong plant!”

“Sure.”

“It was! Every time I ‘didn’t focus, Zack’-” Zack crossed his arms and did an impression of someone Cloud only sort of remembered from the old ShinRa propaganda. “-he’d take me to his ‘greenhouse’ - which was literally a storage closet with potted plants in it, I might add-” Cloud pressed a hand to his lips. “-and he’d make me sit there and help him trim these weird bushes that’d leave blisters on your skin if you didn’t wear gloves. He said they were his _favorite_ and that he couldn’t possibly let them die. He even had photos of them on the walls. _Photos_. On the _walls._ ”

“Are you sure he wasn’t just messing with you?” While Cloud could understand the necessity of having to make do with whatever sort of ‘greenhouse’ you could manage in Midgar, the photos did seem a bit much.

Zack’s mouth hung open as he stared at Cloud. And then it snapped shut as he switched to staring off in the distance.

“I can’t believe I never saw it.”

It was Cloud’s turn to ruffle Zack’s hair as the man slumped over onto the table, his face buried in his arms.

Cloud went back to his delivery schedule, occasionally tapping a few numbers into his PHS’s calculator as he tried to figure out which route would save him the most gas. Eventually Zack picked himself back up off the table and propped his chin in his hand as he silently watched. 

“I think he liked the Persian Shield best,” Zack said after some time had passed.

“Huh?” Cloud glanced up from his schedule.

“Angeal. I think the Persian Shield was his favorite. He only mentioned it once, but he was always tending to it whenever he wasn’t instructing me on the best way to prune a bush or water a cactus or whatever new thing he wanted me to do next.” Zack huffed, rolling his eyes.

“Well, you weren’t wrong, then. That’s still not the plant the owner had.”

“Told you I was right.” Zack’s grin was tinged with something else Cloud couldn’t place. Sadness, perhaps. Or maybe loneliness. Cloud was a poor substitute for Zack’s former comrades.

As if sensing his thoughts, Zack slid out of the booth and snatched his notebook, holding it above his head were Cloud would have to jump if he wanted to reach it. Or punch him in the stomach.

Cloud narrowed his eyes. “Give that back.”

“Nope! Enough work for now! Time to play Jenga with your favorite SOLDIER.” The notebook came down as Zack propped his hands on his hips. The stance highlighted his chest. His very bare chest.

Cloud huffed as he looked away, though he couldn’t stop the slight curve of his lips. Zack’s antics had a way of making you smile, no matter the situation.

“See!” Zack said, pointing towards Cloud’s mouth, “You like the idea.”

“I like the idea of kissing you more,” Cloud said, before he could talk himself out of it. 

Zack was quiet for a moment, and then Cloud had to scoot over as Zack shoved his way into his side of the booth. Pulling him close, Zack pressed a wet kiss to his cheek. Cloud made a face as he wiped at the slobber.

“Not like that!” Cloud shoved him, and it almost sent Zack flying off the seat. Luckily, Zack had grown used to the difference in Cloud’s strength, something that Cloud himself sometimes forgot, having slipped back into memories he couldn’t quite shake, his mind telling him that Zack was an immovable object no frail trooper like him could possibly budge.

“All right! All right! No need to get pushy.” 

Cloud rolled his eyes.

“Now then, you want a kiss, huh?” Zack said, his voice dipping down into a frequency that made Cloud’s blood pool between his legs. “Where would you like it? Here?” Lips brushed his ear. “Here?” Cloud shuddered as Zack pressed a kiss to his neck. “Here?” Zack trailed kisses across his shoulder. “Maybe here?” His mouth laid gentle kisses on Cloud’s left bicep. “Oh, I know! I’ll give you one right here.” Zack tugged Cloud’s shirt up. Cloud twitched when he kissed his bare side. 

“Still ticklish, I see.”

“Yeah,” Cloud agreed, though he hadn’t known he was. It wasn’t as if he’d allowed anyone to get that close after Nibelheim. 

Zack’s hand slid into Cloud’s lap. “You know, if you want me to kiss you here, we’d better head upstairs.”

Cloud nodded jerkily.

“I mean, if you really want to,” Zack said, leaning back. His expression darkened as the situation seemed to catch up to him. He slipped out of the booth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to go so fast. I forgot-”

If he’d been wearing a shirt, Cloud would have yanked him down by it. Instead, he settled for grabbing his belt. He caught Zack’s lips with his own as the man toppled forward.

The kiss was more forceful than the ones they’d had before. Or, at least, the ones Cloud could remember. It seemed to do the trick, Zack relaxing enough for Cloud to feel safe releasing him. 

“I should insist that we at least go to dinner first, but we didn’t even do that the first time.” Zack grinned. “I guess at least this time we can actually do it on a bed.”

Cloud’s eyes widened. “You’re the one who fucked me in the supply room.”

“You remember!”

“Not really,” Cloud muttered. He’d known _someone_ had had sex with him in one of the lesser-used ShinRa supply areas, but he hadn’t known who or even what they’d done. Just vague recollections of naked bodies and panting. 

He did recall the half-empty paint can tipping over and dowsing them in yellow.

Zack didn’t miss a beat. “Good. That means I can impress you all over again.”

“You sure about that?” Cloud asked, sliding out of the booth. “Maybe I’ll be doing the impressing this time.”

“Yeah?” Zack’s grin said he was waiting for the punchline. Cloud gave it to him.

He picked him up in one smooth motion and held him above his head. Mako-bright eyes widened and then sparkled as Zack grinned.

“Yeah.”

====================

The next day Tifa gave the notebook a knowing shake of the head as she picked it up off the bar floor.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments & kudos are love. <3 Hope you all enjoyed it! I think I'll play around some more in this universe, once I get some actual plot ideas and not just the random conversations they seem to be having so far. XD


End file.
